Inside every organization, there are moments happening right now that deserve to be celebrated: the employee who went the extra mile for a client, the leader who always put their teams first, the 20-year veteran whose career is its own masterclass. The question is how to find and celebrate them well.

That’s the idea at the heart of a growing shift in how organizations approach employee appreciation events. More and more, they are turning to keynote speakers who can add something deeper to these moments and help their people feel truly valued and seen.

Few do this better than Peter Katz. One of the most in-demand speakers in the appreciation and recognition space, Peter has built a career — and a signature framework — around a simple but powerful idea: we become what we celebrate. And the way he prepares for every event is what truly makes this idea come alive and amplify its impact.

From the Road to the Stage

Peter’s unique perspective on service has been cultivated from nearly two decades as an internationally touring singer-songwriter. After a serious injury interrupted his life on the road, he discovered that the skills he had honed on tour — like creating space for deep connection and communal joy — were applicable to people from any industry and any walk of life. Now a four-time TEDx fellow, Peter helps leaders and employees at every level create new opportunities for connection and elevation. His highly customized keynote concerts and facilitations leave audiences feeling recognized, empowered, and energized.

But what sets Peter apart isn’t just the music or the stage presence. It’s what happens before he ever steps on stage.

Doing the Homework

When Peter first started speaking, he combatted his imposter syndrome — as a touring musician who never worked in an office — by learning everything he could about the people he was speaking to.

“I thought that if I could use their language, understand their challenges and motivators, and unearth their stories, then I could hopefully craft an offering that would be specifically relevant and impactful for that audience,” he said. So he started interviewing attendees before every talk — and he still does, hundreds of events later.

What he noticed changed everything: the people he interviewed had remarkable stories, but they consistently downplayed them. “They would say things like ‘that’s just how I’ve always approached it,’ or ‘that’s just my leadership style’… They didn’t see their own remarkableness.”

That gap has become the foundation of Peter’s work. “The more stories of impact that get shared, the more impacts get created,” he says. “The more an organization celebrates stories of its values, mission, vision, purpose in action… the more it becomes its values, mission, vision, purpose.”

The Other “AI”

So how does Peter actually find these hidden stories? It starts with one question, refined over thousands of client interviews: “What is a story you can share of a moment when you felt particularly proud of an impact you were able to create?” The key word being “story”.

“The specificity and detail that emerges when we story-tell is foundational to the whole exercise,” Peter says. “The wisdom and inspiration are baked into our stories, and stories draw us in, they make us listen, they tap into our heart space.”

His approach is rooted in Appreciative Inquiry — “the other AI” as he calls it — a methodology built on the idea that the questions we ask shape the outcomes we get. Humans are hard-wired to focus on what’s wrong or broken. Appreciative Inquiry helps us re-wire that by asking what’s possible.

A famous case study of Appreciative Inquiry in action involves a group of educators, who stopped circling students’ mistakes, and instead started circling what they did well. Spelling improved but more importantly, students’ desire to write went up.

That same philosophy has become the foundation of Peter’s speaking and facilitation work, and how he builds out his keynotes.

An Industry Standard for Care

Peter’s approach as a keynote speaker sets an industry standard for care and customization. For every one of his events, he conducts a client discovery call about six weeks out, followed by 3-4 focused interviews with attendees a couple weeks later — close enough to the event that the stories stay fresh as he builds them into a fully customized narrative tied to the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Peter also likes to arrive at an event early so he can listen and be a part of it. This experience often shapes what he says on stage.

“I think ‘customized’ should be synonymous with ‘special’,” Peter said. The more people feel a keynote is created specifically for them, the more impactful it will be, he continued.

Sometimes that means throwing out the original plan entirely. Peter once talked a client out of the keynote they’d hired him for — a standard service-recognition event with photos, mugs, and scripted platitudes. When he asked what feeling they wanted the room to leave with, it was clear their plan wouldn’t get them there. So he proposed stepping into an emcee/storyteller role instead, sharing the real stories behind the recipients. The result, according to the client, was “the most memorable and special recognition event they’d ever had.”

The Keynote Concert

Peter’s deep level of customization is complemented with original music. As a Juno Award- and Canadian Screen Award-nominated singer-songwriter, his keynote concerts blend live music with powerful storytelling.

“There’s mountains of neuroscience around what happens in our bodies as we hear music,” Peter said. “It moves us into the part of our physiology where we can access our feelings… it makes us more able to listen, to connect, to retain information.” He uses music to open audiences up, anchor a story so it sticks, and create a shared experience — often closing with a group sing-along.

The Ripple Effect

What truly defines Peter’s impact as a keynote speaker is the lasting impression he leaves. One of his favourite moments happened at a keynote for a jeweller’s association. He shared a story onstage about a jeweller named John, who had a client slowly making payments to buy a ring for his wife. He sadly passed away just before he could give it to her, so John delivered it himself.

“What stood out to me,” Peter said, “was the night before I shared the story onstage, John shared the story with his wife, knowing that I was about to tell it. He had never told her.  She walked up to me after the talk and shared with me that the moment of John sharing that story with her was one of the most special moments of their marriage. And, just to make the story even better, I actually eventually bought my engagement ring from John about a year later!”

Moments like these illustrate what Peter brings to audiences: not just a story well told, but a mirror. When people hear their own experience reflected back to them, they start to recognize the same thing in themselves. That’s the “recipe” Peter leaves behind.

“When we share our stories, we reveal the recipes of our successes, which then makes them repeatable,” Peter said. “And simultaneously, we unlock the inspiration and motivation for others to want to go create similar outcomes in their own lives.”

Clients regularly tell Peter that they are able to successfully employ his methods after the keynote ends, with some organizations producing video series, podcasts, and internal resources based on the stories he surfaces. Clients across every sector describe the same shift:  

“I’ve never seen people get as emotionally involved at a conference as what I saw happen during and after Peter spoke… he gets right at the root of what motivates people.”

— Jeff Lehman, Mayor of the City of Barrie

“Peter stands out as special… today he did an incredible job delivering a heartful and wise presentation to our people. He is so gifted and authentic.”

— Katherine Twells, SVP, West Region, The Coca-Cola Company

“We’ll never be able to book another speaker because no one will ever be able to live up to what you just did for all of us. We had 90 minutes with you but we will remember this for the rest of our lives.”

— Heather Lank, Parliamentary Librarian, Library of Parliament

And from the client whose employee appreciation event Peter completely reimagined:

“This was not your everyday keynote. We will remember his generous efforts. And we will remember how he made us feel as we left that room: inspired, connected, and ready to lead with purpose.”

— Jennifer Topping, HR/OD Consultant, Ontario Tech University

We Become What We Celebrate

Appreciation isn’t hard to get right — but it does require something most organizations skip: real curiosity about the people they’re trying to celebrate. Peter has built a career, and a framework, around exactly that. Every story he shares on stage was already sitting there, waiting to be noticed. His gift is knowing how to find it, and how to hand it back in a way that makes an entire room feel seen.

As Peter says, “Everything you’re looking for is actually already there… it’s happening every day within the corners of your office, your association, your institution.” His job — and the reason organizations keep booking him — is bringing it into the light.

Hire Peter Katz to Speak at Your Event

With past clients including Johns Hopkins Medicine, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Xerox, Keller Williams, American Express, SickKids Hospital, the US Dept of Energy, and the Royal Bank, Peter’s in-person events have been praised as “transformational” and he has been recognized as a pioneer in creating highly engaging virtual experiences. 

He was recently inducted into the National Speakers Association’s Speaker Hall of Fame, an honour achieved by less than 1% of professional speakers, in recognition of his expertise in helping teams recognize, value, and celebrate their individual and collective impact.

Ready to help your people feel truly seen? Contact us to learn more about Peter Katz and how to book him for your next event.